Advancements in air quality research and the demand for more accurate environmental health assessments have highlighted the need for methodologies that bridge the gap between laboratory findings and real-world conditions. This dissertation includes a retrospective of maritime emissions, and a deep analysis of the operational and emission parameters on newest container ships, all with the goal of improving regulations for ship air pollution and reducing personal exposure. The thesis then provides evaluation to establish a novel aerosol delivery method for health studies, aiming to enhance the management of air pollution and its health implications.
Maritime shipping, a major fossil fuel and criteria emissions source, has been historically understudied, and so emissions controls and policy have been misapplied. A historic technical review was conducted, utilizing an extensive internal dataset to develop new insights into the emissions profile of ocean-going vessels (OGVs). This analysis provides an understanding of the pollutants released by these ships across decades of regulatory changes and suggests pathways for more effective regulatory strategies.
In the subsequent chapter, this work applies GPS monitoring on active container ships, combined with in-use engine operational data and emissions testing, to develop an understanding of how vessel operations modify the contributions to air pollution. This approach offers a significant advancement over traditional engine load-based emission estimations, providing guidance to improve the accounting of emissions in real-time and historically, under real-world operating conditions, and identifying areas of regulatory oversight. This granularity enables the identification of specific maneuvers and activities, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas, that disproportionately affect emission levels.
The final chapter evaluates a recently introduced method for aerosol delivery in biomedical studies, designed to mimic real-world respiratory exposure to pollutants more accurately than traditional laboratory techniques. In simulating representative conditions under which subjects are exposed to aerosols, the physical deposition of particles in the lung and the resulting inflammatory response enable a clearly quantified improvement in methodology.